GOP/Tea Party Cincinnati

Making the world safe for Bernie Madoff, Carl Lindner and Harry Yeaggy, but not the rest of us..

Unless you've lived the past 50 years under a rock, you already know that Carl Linder is one of the richest and most influential men in the country let alone Cincinnati and the tristate. He owns United Dairy Farmers, American Financial Group and at one time owned Chiquita Banana and part of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Mr. Lindner is known for his political generosity. He sprinkles his money on all sides of the political fence to gain maximum bang for his buck. Every politico around here is beholden to Uncle Carl regardless of party affiliation.

Everybody knows Bernie, but you might not be too familiar with Cincinnatian Harry Yeaggy. He owns a small classic car museum and last night bought the James Bond 1965 Goldfinger Aston Martin for 4.1 million dollars.

Cincinnati is just full of both infamous and anonymous rich people who quietly live here among the buckeye and walnut trees in neighborhoods like Indian Hill or Hyde Park or Madeira. At one point in this nation's recent past, there were more millionaires per capita living in Cincinnati than anywhere else in America.

And the Tea Party/GOP is working hard to keep these guys and others in their tax bracket happy and content. So much so, that they're even willing to spite the rest of us just to keep these guys swimming in greenbacks.

But I didn't mention these two men to knock them or to bad mouth them. I actually like the idea that a Cincinnatian went all the way to Europe with a pocket full of money and bought the Goldfinger car and is bringing it back to Ohio.

Carl Lindner is one of the good guys. He does a lot for this area. Never talks. Just lets his money do the walking. I'm not mad at him. I respect him.

My beef is with the Tea Party/GOP which claims to represent the American people, but is going above and beyond the call of duty to protect people who don't need protecting
while ignoring those who do.

The Cincinnnati Enquirer has endorsed these hybrid teabag-republicans, namely Jean Scmidt in the Second Congressional District, Steve Chabot in the First Congressional District, and John Boehner in the 8^th District.

Schmidt is running for a third term. Yet if you listen to her campaign commercials, you'd be hard pressed to understand that she is actually one of the Washington insiders that she is running against. She's been there for two terms already.

She voted for the Bush tax cuts, which will increase the deficit by 3 trillion dollars if allowed to go forward. She voted against the CHIP program which gives health care to indigent children.

She voted in favor of the two illegal wars. She voted for the 2006 Military Commissions Act which for the first time ever in the history of America, stations American troops
on American soil to be used against American citizens at the whim of the President. Think about that for a minute...

She supports FISA which allows the government to spy on American citizens at will. I'll Give ya another minute on that one, too.

She voted against health care reform and wall street financial reform. She wants to deregulate banking.

She recently made headlines for lecturing six year olds at school, without parents present, about abortion.

Six Year Olds?! WTF!

Schmidt votes the GOP/teabag line 95% of the time, so it would be safe to assume that girlfriend will vote to cut social security, repeal health care, gut medicare and defund
medicaid, since those are the current party stances.

It is also safe to say that Steve Chabot is also in support of these measures, if he is returned to Congress. He lost two years ago after seven terms, having ridden in with Newt Gingrich and the Contract on America, for the first time back in 1994. He lost primarily because he is an ineffective representative, known more for his comb-over sartorial splendor than generating substantive legislation for his district.

Despite his dismal record, the Enquirer issued its endorsement by stating that his record is better than it reads on paper. Really?! I mean really?! What changed besides him getting booted out of office?

Chabot votes just like Schmidt. In other words, whatever the party bosses tell him to do, he will do it. He favors privatizing social security, cutting off medicare and medicaid,  repealing health care...supports two illegal wars and funding for such.

Chabot's campaign ads are full of vague unsubstantiated allegations and talking points with no basis in fact and no solutions for problems. And again, he wants you to believe
that he is a “newby” when actually he was part of team "Screw America."

Chabot is a multi- term Congressman, a professional politican, whose votes helped take down this country, yet he wants to duck complicity in the Big fail, like every other GOP/teabagger running for office.

And then, there is the Boss. No, not Bruce, John Boehner, he who would be Speaker of the House of Representatives. The Enquirer endorses him because it says “we” the people need to see what he can do in a leadership role.

NO WE DON'T! I don't need to feel the fire to know it burns. I don't need to jump off a cliff to know that my fat ass won't bounce when I hit bottom. I don't need to stand in front of a 357 magnum and have a stupid friend pull the trigger to understand that getting shot, gets me dead.

John Boehner wants to be Dean Martin. He apparently likes the idea of being a leader with all the trappings...it's that work thingey that trips him up.

The West Chester Congressman is on record about what he intends to do, if he should win re election again. Here is another of the major players in the near destruction of America. Here is a man who was complicit in destroying the  Ohio middle class, shipping jobs overseas and favoring tax breaks for the very corporations who are hurting this country.

Boehner is their bag man passing out the bucks to buy their votes on the very floor of Congress.

Even while endorsing him the Enquirer slapped him for ignoring his constituents in favor of national interests. Question....If he is screwing up now in his representation...what's gonna happen to the shrinking West Chester middle class, if he is given the national role.

What's he gonna say...”Oh wait...gotta see what my folks back O hy O think about this first..” Please!

Vote on November 2^nd to keep our country going forward.

These guys deserve your vote...

Surya Yalamanchili in the 2^nd District

Steve Driehaus in the 1^st District

Justin Coussoule in the 8^th District

Crone-Not Just a Conservatory in Cincinnati

Jean Schmidt, another example of Republican hamster craziness.

What is “hamster craziness,” you ask? It's being on a treadmill going nowhere, fast. Congresswoman Schmidt, back from DC and fresh from a massive drubbing on Health care reform, is still telling lies, the same lies, still spinning a web of major prevarication, and doing it with a straight face even though the facts say differently.

She even creates a new lie and new tax...the abortion tax. Hadn't heard that one before today.

Of course the Enquirer is only too happy to print it without fact check. Guess it's too hard to really go through motions of doing the job of objective reporting.

Enquirer, it really is okay to tell an interview that they're full of crap. It really is okay to challenge on their facts and figures. You get better answers that way.

Makes for a more honest interview.

Schmidt, like all her colleagues assume republican is synonymous with American, an assumption that was proven patently wrong in 2008. It is an assumption that ignores the big parts of America not grounded in white privilege. Republicans assume they speak for us, because they assume they were born to do so. Now that focus has cleared up a bit, they are still acting like they're in charge.

They are still acting as if health care was a minor ripple and that they will set things right come November. This is a fallacy in and of itself, because it assumes that only republicans are going to vote in November.

Amid the blatant lies contained in her column today, she even says that is what is going to happen. Led by Jean d'Arc, the GOP is going to rise again, just like the South, All hail Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy.

Okay. Rather than paraphrase I will let you decide...Is she nuts? Are you better off with GOP rubber stamp Jean in Congress singing back up to Orangeman John Boehner. Here is what she said today reposted from the Cincinnati Enquirer website.

Schmidt: Costs will go up and quality will go down

The president has now signed into law a health care reform bill that proponents wildly claim will give everyone everything they want. Sound familiar? And, in order to come up with enough votes to pass it, Democratic leaders had to buy off their own members with special deals for Nebraska, Florida, Louisiana and don't forget Senator Dodd's new hospital in Connecticut. These are but a few of the "special compromises" that were made to line up the necessary votes.
Every opinion poll and nearly every constituent I have listened to want real reform to lower their health care costs. The president, Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Reid have instead given us at least 19 new taxes and have eliminated Medicare Advantage for 5 million retired seniors. Yet, once all of the budget gimmicks and unrealistic future cuts are removed, the plan will actually add between $59 and $260 billion to the national debt over the next 10 years.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Democratic health care plan will actually increase the amount of health care spending by the federal government by $390 billion over the next 10 years. Millions of American families will see their premiums rise by about $2,100 annually. This is not the kind of reform we need, nor is it what my Democratic colleagues have been selling. Too many of my constituents are struggling to pay health insurance premiums at the current costs. How can they possibly afford to pay more?
If the plan's costs to families, employers and the federal government were not bad enough, it gets even worse. The portion of the plan that is funded is paid for by a half-trillion dollars in job-stifling tax increases and another half-trillion dollars in Medicare cuts. Most alarming to those who do not want their taxes used to fund abortion, the federal government will be mandating a fee on new subsidized insurance plans to pay for abortions for the first time in over 30 years - despite an over-hyped executive order that does nothing to stop the collection of the new abortion tax, and can be rescinded in the blink of an eye.
Fortunately, a majority of Americans realize that they are going to be taxed and their quality of coverage will be reduced. They understand that this measure is about creating a new government entitlement to give coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans. A laudable goal, but a dream we simply cannot afford. The Congress should instead focus on actually achieving health care reform's original goal - reducing costs for everyone.

No He Can't-Cincinnati John